Human Rights - All Men Are Not Graded Equally

In examining that all human beings have "equal human worth," Joel Feinberg proves this statement problematic; Feinberg assesses that it cannot prove accurate because there are different degrees of worth. He first acknowledges the feudal system of the past; their society existed as a multilayered framework of human dignity and worth. Little however has changed because the rich, the intelligent, and the loyal citizens still think in some regards that they have more worth than that of a lowly criminal. While the lowly beggar has no meritorious status such as Bill Gates, he is still worthy of the common human rights and respect due to all of us. While many philosophers sought to find a common factor to weigh human worth including rationality, who really decides who is more valuable than another human being?

One must first assess how people are going to be "graded" against one another; this is how morality, meritorious achievements, and good behavior factor into what makes one human being worth more than another. When observing the love a parent has for a child, it is not by one quality alone that a parent loves a child or by one quality alone that a parent would stop loving a child. It is not by meritorious achievement that a parent loves a child more, but through understanding and unconditional love that a parent loves a child; this love is infinite, pure, and "groundless." As mysterious as the unconditional love for the stranger that is born to you (a child) is, so is the puzzling relationship of natural respect for strangers and felons. Our judgments contribute to how well or not well we treat those that we see; it is through our own senses that we experience the world and the people in it. Through our own defining character (each one of us unique to the world) we are able to put ourselves into someone else's "shoes."

Perhaps it can be best explained by rationalizing that "human worth" is what it is; it is one mans definition interpreted by each person in their own way. It is the harsh attitude we show the taxi cab driver, it is the calm appearance we reveal to the job interviewer, and it is the kind opening of a door to a stranger after a long day. Our own human perspectives guide our actions by the attitude we portray at a certain moment or to a certain 'type' of person by the qualities in them that we are able to judge. If we all had "equal human worth" understood, appreciated, and executed by each person, perhaps it would be a more civilized and happy place; however, it appears more like a designer play with an ignorant cast (doing what they think is right in roles that are all wrong for them).